Roughening machine for lasted uppers

ABSTRACT

The marginal portion of an upper is roughened by rotary brushes while the upper is transported by a carriage having a heel support, and a toe support mounted on an adjustable slide. Adjustment to different sizes of the uppers is carried out by sensing a three dimensional cam which preferably has two parallel cam discs which are both sensed by bridging rollers whose positions are sensed by feeler rollers. The rotary brushes are adjusted in accordance with the positions of the sensing rollers.

0 llmted States Patent 1 [1 1 amamz Eechtold [4 1 May 22, 1973 ROUGHENING MACHINE FOR f rences Cited LASTED UPPERS UNITED STATES PATENTS [75] Invent 30mm" Bel-01d, Obewrsel, 3,02s,542 3/1962 Piotrowski ..12/1 R y 3,107,376 10/1963 Reid et al Assigneez Maschinenfabrik Mnenus Aktielb 3,274,628 RfiiphS gesellschaft, Frankfurt am Main, Germany Primary Exammer-Patrlck D. Lawson Attorney-Michael S. Striker [22] Filed: May 19, 1972 21 Appl. No.: 255,052 ABSTRACT The marginal portion of an upper is roughened by ro- 301 Foreign Application p i Data tary brushes while the upper is transported by a carriage having a heel support, and a toe support May 22, 1971 Germany up 21 25 485.3 mounted on an adjustable slidev Adjustment to ferent sizes of the uppers is carried out by sensing a u a u 1 u s u a 1 I I a a a a e a a I I a a d l W A parallel cam discs which are both sensed by bridging 1 0 can rollers whose positions are sensed by feeler rollers.

The rotary brushes are adjusted in accordance with the positions of the sensing rollers.

8 Claims, 9 Drawing Figures PATENTEDMAY 22 I975 SHEET 2 OF 6 PAIKNIEI) 1m 22 19/5 SHEET 3 OF 6 PATENTED MAY 2 2 I975 SHEET LL 0F 6 ROUGHENING MACHINE FOR LASTED UPPERS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a machine for roughening the pinched marginal portions of an upper on a last. Machines are known in which a carriage supports an adjustable toe support, while on the sides and above the path of the carriages, rotary roughening brushes are provided, mounted on horizontal tool arm means which are operated by cam means in accordance with the size of the shoe so that the respective roughening brush follows the adjacent lateral pinched marginal portion of the upper which moves past the rotary brush together with the last and the upper on the last.

A machine of this type is disclosed in the German OS No. 1,485,896. The machine does not facilitate or expedite the work substantially, as compared with conventional manual roughening operation carried out by a workman. The known machine must be reset every time when an upper has a different size from the preceding upper, and a control cam controlling the roughening brushes has to be exchanged so that unpredictable interruptions of the work take place.

Furthermore, in the known roughening machine, the critical maintaining of the correct depth of roughening is obtained by setting, before an operation, a suitable engaging force for the roughening brushes, in accordance with the judgement of the operator, whereupon the operator moves the carriage with the lasted upper once or twice through the brushes at such a speed that the correct depth of roughening is obtained. Such a way of setting can only be manually carried out if the operator is very experienced and skilled, and the time required for the operation depends in an unpredictable manner from the obtaining of the desired depth of roughening for a specific material.

However, for a continuous operation of a large series of workpieces, it is desirable that the duration of the working periods and idle periods remains the same, and corresponds to the operation of preceding or following machines operating on the same workpieces.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is one object of the invention to overcome the disadvantages of known roughening machines for lasted uppers, and provide such a machine which automatically operates.

Another object of the invention is to provide a machine inwhich roughening tools are automatically adjusted in accordance with the size of a transported uper. p Another object of the invention, is to control roughening operations for lasted uppers by means of a threedimensional cam, preferably including two parallel cam discs.

With these objects in view, a machine according to the invention, provides a three-dimensional rotary cam, whose shape corresponds to the frustum of a pyramid. The respective sensing roller means which act, respectively, on arms, can be adjusted in vertical direction. The respective mounting means are in the path of movement of an abutment which is provided under the carriage adjustable in a guideway and coupled with the toe support which is adjustable along the length of the carriage. Since during the securing of the upper on the last on the carriage, the toe support has to be moved toward the point of the last, a pre-setting of the sensing level of the three-dimensional cam in accordance with the length of the respective upper is automatically obtained, corresponding to the size of the respective upper. Without additional setting operation, the machine of the invention can work on uppers of different size in quick succession.

The manufacturing of the three-dimensional cam is substantially facilitated, if the cam is constructed of an upper and of a lower cam disc with bridging rollers en gaging both peripheral cam tracks of the cam disc and positioned as generatrices, the positions of the bridging rollers being sensed by feeler rollers. It is advantageous to make each bridging roller detachable, and exchangeable for a marking device, and to mount the two cam discs exchangeably on the respective supporting shaft. In order to manufacture correct cam discs for a model upper having different but geometrically similar dimensions, the first roughening operation is manually controlled, while the still circular cam discs are marked by the marking tool, and then machined in accordance with the marked peripheral outline.

It is advantageous to couple each rotary roughening brush by means of a link with the arm of the sensing roller on the respective other side of the path of movement of the carriage. Since the brush rotates on the workpiece, and more specifically on the pinched margin of the upper, in inward direction in order to maintain the pinched marginal portion in tensioned condition, a force acts on the brushes in outward direction toward the respective cam track of the threedimensional cam, so that a specific cam spring can be omitted which would influence the arms carrying the sensing rollers.

An increase of the efficiency of the machine is obtained when the toe support and the carriage end are provided with coupling pins cooperating with limit switches in the path of movement of the carriages in order to engage the point or the heel of the upper before the roughening operation by an abrassive glass band so that pinched folds in these regions are ground off. In order to make a working operation independent of the material of the workpiece, it is advantageous to provide adjustable feeler fingers besides the roughening brushes in order to limit the depth of roughening. The first operable feeler finger is preferably located in an extension of the tilting axis which is perpendicular to the axis of rotation of the rotary brush. The engagement force is given by the weight 0F the tiltable arms and of the rotary brushes, while the time period during which the carriage moves under the rotary brushes, is selected in accordance with the working rhythm of the preceding or following machines, while nevertheless the feeler fingers assure in any case the correct depth of the roughened surface.

A fully automatic operation at high speed can be obtained by the machine of the invention by connecting several carriages for movement by an endless conveyor chain while ratchet arresting means are provided for securing the lateral sensing rollers at different levels, while a limit switch at the end of the path of movement of the carriages, effects the release of the arresting means. In this manner, the mounting means of the sensing rollers are returned to the initial position so that the full range of vertical adjustment of the sensing rollers is available for the next following carriage.

An automatic release, for example by limit switches following each working position of the carriage, may be scription of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawing BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. I is a schematic fragmentary front view of an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic fragmentary plan view of the embodiment of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary front view showing the left portion of the machine;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary sectional view illustrating a detail of the embodiment of FIGS. 1 and 3;

FIG. is a fragmentary side view illustrating a detail of FIGS. 1 and 6;

FIG. 6 is a side view of the embodiment of FIG. 1;

FIG. 7 is a plan view of the embodiment of FIGS. 1 and 6;

FIG. 8 is a fragmentary front view illustrating a roughening tool; and

FIG. 9 is a fragmentary plan view of the roughening tool shown in FIG. 8.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT As shown in the drawing, and particularly in FIGS. 1 and 6, an upper 1 is mounted on the last 2 which has a supporting bolt 2 in the region of the heel, and is supported in its front part by a toe support 3. While the heel support 2 is mounted on a carriage 4, the toe support 3 is mounted on a slide 5' of the carriage 4 which has a portion 5 provided with a slot 5" which is slanted to horizontal and vertical directions. The adjusting movement of the toe support 3 displaces a stop constructed as a follower roller 6 which is mounted on a link 7 mounted with a follower roller in the slot 5", and being supported at its other end on a pivot 7 on the carriage 4.

In the position shown in FIGS. 1 and 6, carriage 4 has moved the abutment roller 6 over the guide surface 8 on a slide 9, which is guided on shafts 45 and, as best seen in FIG. 5, displaces by the joint head 9', the sensing lever arm 10 which carries the feeler roller 11. Lever 10 is displaced about shaft 10 in a guide means 10" in the arm 12 so that the feeler rollers 11 move to different levels of the bridging rollers 13 which are mounted in a holder 25, and bridge the peripheral cam tracks of the lower larger cam disc 14 and of the upper smaller cam disc 15 by means of roller levers 13" and intermediate rollers 13', as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, which have the position of generatrices in the sensing region of the frustum of a pyramid formed by the discs 14 and 15.

Since the lateral feeler rollers 11 operate through control arm 12 and a transverse link 16, see FIG. 3, the respective opposite cranked arm 17 for the respective rotary roughening brush 18, the sensing with the feeler roller 11 at the height of the lower larger cam disc 14 corresponds to the smallest shoe size, and the sensing at the level of the upper smaller cam disc 15 of the three-dimensional cam correspond to the greatest shoe size for an upper roughened at the machine.

The intermediate rollers 13 are preferably exchangeably mounted, and can be replaced by a marking device, not shown, by which blank discs for a new three-dimensional cam can be marked if the roughening of a new shoe model is done the first time by manual operation on the machine.

The toe support 3 and the end of carriage 4 respectively carry actuator pins 3, 4 which can be turned by springs, not shown, to an inoperative position, and held in the operative projecting position by the lasted upper 1. These actuator pins cooperate with limit switches 26 along the rails 21 of the carriages 4, controlling operating means 27, 28 for first placing a known abrasive glass band 19 in contact with the heal and toe region of the marginal portion of the upper 1, and then placing the roughening brush 18 in contact with the marginal portion of the upper. The glass band 19 is guided by a roller mounted on an expansible arm 35, and is turnable about a pivot 48. The actuators 3', 4' are in the inoperative position when the carriage 4 is empty, so that the glass band 19 and the brushes 18 are not operated.

The brushes 18 are mounted at the end pivot 29 of a cranked arm 17, as best seen in FIGS. 3 and 7. The engaging force between brushes 18 and the workpiece is determined by the weight of arm 17 and of cylinder 28. The brushes 18 are double rollers consisting of wires embedded in rubber. Feeler fingers 20, see FIGS. 8 and 9, are provided between the brush portions. The feeler fingers 20 limit the depth of the roughening of the treated marginal portion of the upper, and are adjustable by lever 32, threaded spindle 33, and slide 43.

The rotary brushes 18 are mounted in a slide 34 which is adjustable in upright direction along the shaft 37. The front end of shaft 37 carries the feeler fingers 20, and at the rear end, a motor 39, see also FIG. 3, is provided which drives through a belt 40, the respective rotary brush l8. Shaft 37 is mounted in bearings 41 on lever 42.

FIG. 6 shows only one carriage 4 which is guided by rolls 44 along the rails 21 which are mounted in the machine frame 30. Several carriages 4 are arranged following each other at intervals, and are connected with each other by an endless double conveyor chain 22 which is driven by the motor 43. The sensing level of each feeler roller 11 which for each workpiece size is individually fixed by the arresting means 23 operated by the cylinder and piston means 46 and the rack bar 47, and pneumatically released when the respective carriage 4 moves out of the working position on the rails 21 and abuts the limit switch 24. A return spring 31 then moves the feeler roller 11 to its uppermost position so that the next adjustment can be carried out over the full range of adjustments.

It will be understood that each of the elements described above, or two or more together, may also find a useful application in other types of roughening machines for lasted uppers differing from the types described above.

While the invention has been illustrated and described as embodied in a roughening machine for the marginal portion of a lasted upper, including a threedimensional cam, it is not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made without departing in any way from the spirit of the present invention.

Without further analysis, the foregoing will so fully reveal the gist of the present invention that others can by applying current knowledge readily adapt it for various applications without omitting features that, from the standpoint of prior art, fairly constitute essential characteristics of the generic or specific aspects of this invention and, therefore, such adaptations should and are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and range of equivalence of the following claims.

What is claimed as new and desired to be protected by Letters Patent is set forth in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. Roughening machine for lasted uppers, comprising, in combination, movable carriage means including a heel support for a lasted upper, and a slide movable on said carriage means and having a toe support for said lasted upper, and slanted guide means; threedimensional cam means driven to rotate about an axis; sensing means including a pair of sensing arms and sensing roller means on said sensing arms cooperating with said cam means; tool means for roughening a marginal portion of said lasted upper, and being controlled by said sensing means; movable mounting means for mounting said sensing means for adjusting movement in the direction of said axis relative to said cam means so that the position of said tool means is adjusted; and follower means guided by said guide means and connected with said mounting means for varying the position of said sensing means and tool means depending on the position of said toe support, slide, and guide means.

2. A machine as claimed in claim 1 wherein said cam means includes a shaft and two axially spaced cam discs having differently shaped peripheral cam tracks; and wherein said sensing roller means include bridging roller means engaging both cam tracks and feeler roller means movable along said bridging roller means.

3. A machine as claimed in claim 2 wherein said bridging roller meansare detachably mounted for replacement by a marking tool; and wherein said rotary shaft detachably supports said two cam discs.

4. A machine as claimed in claim 1 wherein said tool means include a pair of tool arm means, and tools supported on said tool arm means; and a pair of links connecting said sensing arm means with the respective opposite tool arm means.

5. A machine as claimed in claim 1 comprising actuator means mounted on said slide and on said carriage, respectively, and having an inoperative position and an operative position; switches located along the path of said actuator means and operated by said actuator means in said operative position; and additional tool means actuated by said switches to perform operations on said upper.

6. A machine as claimed in claim 1 wherein said tool means include rotary roughening brushes, and feeler fingers turnable about axes perpendicular to the axes of said rotary roughening brushes, respectively.

7. A machine as claimed in claim 1 comprising a plurality of carriages; and an endless chain for transporting said carriages with lasted uppers; arresting means for arresting said sensing means in adjusted positions; a limit switch operated by each carriage; and means operated by each limit switch to release said arresting means.

8. A machine as claimed in claim 1 wherein said guide means includes a slot slanted to vertical and horizontal directions; and wherein said mounting means include a slanted guide surface engaged by said follower means, said follower means including a follower roller. 

1. Roughening machine for lasted uppers, comprising, in combination, movable carriage means including a heel support for a lasted upper, and a slide movable on said carriage means and having a toe support for said lasted upper, and slanted guide means; three-dimensional cam means driven to rotate about an axis; sensing means including a pair of sensing arms and sensing roller means on said sensing arms cooperating with said cam means; tool means for roughening a marginal portion of said lasted upper, and being controlled by said sensing means; movable mounting means for mounting said sensing means for adjusting movement in the direction of said axis relative to said cam means so that the position of said tool means is adjusted; and follower means guided by said guide means and connected with said mounting means for varying the position of said sensiNg means and tool means depending on the position of said toe support, slide, and guide means.
 2. A machine as claimed in claim 1 wherein said cam means includes a shaft and two axially spaced cam discs having differently shaped peripheral cam tracks; and wherein said sensing roller means include bridging roller means engaging both cam tracks and feeler roller means movable along said bridging roller means.
 3. A machine as claimed in claim 2 wherein said bridging roller means are detachably mounted for replacement by a marking tool; and wherein said rotary shaft detachably supports said two cam discs.
 4. A machine as claimed in claim 1 wherein said tool means include a pair of tool arm means, and tools supported on said tool arm means; and a pair of links connecting said sensing arm means with the respective opposite tool arm means.
 5. A machine as claimed in claim 1 comprising actuator means mounted on said slide and on said carriage, respectively, and having an inoperative position and an operative position; switches located along the path of said actuator means and operated by said actuator means in said operative position; and additional tool means actuated by said switches to perform operations on said upper.
 6. A machine as claimed in claim 1 wherein said tool means include rotary roughening brushes, and feeler fingers turnable about axes perpendicular to the axes of said rotary roughening brushes, respectively.
 7. A machine as claimed in claim 1 comprising a plurality of carriages; and an endless chain for transporting said carriages with lasted uppers; arresting means for arresting said sensing means in adjusted positions; a limit switch operated by each carriage; and means operated by each limit switch to release said arresting means.
 8. A machine as claimed in claim 1 wherein said guide means includes a slot slanted to vertical and horizontal directions; and wherein said mounting means include a slanted guide surface engaged by said follower means, said follower means including a follower roller. 